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Thursday, October 10, 2013

Gift in Hindu Law, definition, which property can be disposed and revocation of gift.

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Hindu Law defines gift as “the creation of another
person’s proprietary right after the extinction of one’s own proprietary right
in the subject matter of the gift.” Gift
under Shastric Hindu law need not be writing, but a gift under that law is not
valid unless it is accompanied by delivery of possession of the subjects of the
gift from donor to the donee. Mere registration of a deed of a gift is not
equivalent to delivery of possession; it is not therefore sufficient to pass
the title of the property from the donor to the done.

vDefinition
of Gift:

According
to the Mitakshara, “A gift consists in the relinquishment without consideration
of one’s own right of property, and
the creation of the right of another. The creation of another man’s right is
completed or that other’s acceptance of the gift, but not otherwise.”

According to Hindu law, an acceptance of a gift can be
made in three ways:-

i.Mental acceptance;

ii.Verbal acceptance;

iii.Corporeal acceptance;

vWhich property can be disposed by Gift:-Under Hindu law, the following property can be disposed of by Gift:-

1)A Hindu entitled to dispose of his separate or self-acquired property by
gift.

Provided that if
the members of the family who are legally entitled to get maintenance from that
person, claim against that gift, then the Hindu cannot dispose his property by
gift.

2)Under Dayabhaga School, a coparcener can gift away his coparcenary
interest, subject to the claims for maintenance of those members who are entitled
to be maintained by him.

Under Mitakshara
School, A coparcener cannot do so except when he is the sole surviving
coparcener.

3)Under Dayabhaga law, a father can dispose of even the whole of the
property by gift, subject to the claims of those who are entitled to be
maintained by him.

4)According to section 14 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, A female
Hindu can dispose of all her property by gift.

But in ancient
Hindu law, she was entitles to dispose of only her stridhana property by gift.

5)A widow can dispose of a part of her widow’s estate by gift to her
daughter or son-in-law on the occasion of the daughter’s marriage. But it
cannot be done by a will.

vRevocation of Gift:

Under Hindu law,
once a gift is complete, it is binding on the donor, and it cannot be revoked
by him, unless it has been obtained by fraud or under influence. (Ganga
Bakash vs. Jagat Bahadar)

The
courts have also observed that where a gift is made by a Hindu widow, the
burden lies upon the done to show that the widow made the gift with a full
understanding.

In Deo kura vs. Man kura (1894),
a gift was set aside in a suit brought eight years after the date of the
gift on the ground that the document of the gift was not explained to the
donor.